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Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ

Project

Overview

Project Overview

Fueled by a strong economy and passage of the 1996 federal welfare law, which imposed new work requirements and time limits on cash benefits, welfare caseloads declined precipitously during the 1990s. Between 1993 and 2000, the number of families on welfare dropped 56 percent nationally, with individual states experiencing reductions ranging from 20 percent to more than 90 percent. Yet more than two million families were on welfare at the end of this period, and many others had replaced welfare with employment that later dried up or had left the rolls without any other source of income.

As states consider how to deal with families who reach welfare time limits or do not receive welfare but have no other means of support, it is essential to find out who the hard-to-employ are and what services can help them find and keep jobs. Led by MDRC in collaboration with several partners, Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ was the first comprehensive attempt to understand this diverse low-income population and to test interventions aimed at the most common barriers to their employment.

42-Month Impacts from the Kansas and Missouri Sites of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project

Two Early Head Start programs were enhanced with formalized services to proactively address parents’ employment, educational, and self-sufficiency needs. A random assignment evaluation finds limited impacts for the full sample but some positive effects on employment and earnings for families who had an infant or who were expecting a child at the outset of the study.

This paper examines issues related to depression severity in this study of a one-year telephone care management intervention for depressed parents who were Medicaid recipients. The original study found effects on getting treatment during the intervention but no impacts on depression severity.

Many hard-to-employ families with low incomes face one or more of the following obstacles to finding and sustaining employment: low basic skills, limited work experience, health problems, or a criminal record. The Hard-to-Employ demonstration was designed to field and evaluate a variety of innovative ways to boost employment, reduce welfare receipt, and promote well-being in this population.

Each of the sites in the demonstration targeted a segment of the hard-to-employ population, such as individuals leaving prison, those in need of mental health treatment, or those who would benefit from a “two-generation” intervention. The following four sites participated in this project:

Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), New York City. Parolees who were mandated to work as a condition of parole were placed in paid transitional employment at one of several dozen worksites around the city for two to three months, followed by job placement into unsubsidized jobs. The program also included a fatherhood program, employer-driven skills training programs, a greater focus on postplacement retention services, and job coaching.

Rhode Island Mental Health Evaluation. The target population for this intervention was working-age parents who were on Medicaid and had undiagnosed depression. An enhanced treatment group received intensive telephonic outreach and follow-up from managed care case managers to encourage participation in mental health treatment. The program provided access to employment services as well.

Kansas and Missouri Early Head Start (EHS). Aimed at poor families who had children four years old or younger or a baby on the way, and who were interested in receiving EHS, this “two-generation” intervention sought to enhance the link between the TANF employment and EHS child development programs. The children in the program group were enrolled in EHS services and the parents received home visits to establish and work toward self-sufficiency goals.

42-Month Impacts from the Kansas and Missouri Sites of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project

Two Early Head Start programs were enhanced with formalized services to proactively address parents’ employment, educational, and self-sufficiency needs. A random assignment evaluation finds limited impacts for the full sample but some positive effects on employment and earnings for families who had an infant or who were expecting a child at the outset of the study.

This paper examines issues related to depression severity in this study of a one-year telephone care management intervention for depressed parents who were Medicaid recipients. The original study found effects on getting treatment during the intervention but no impacts on depression severity.

The implementation and process analysis examined how the programs operate, based primarily on site visits and interviews with program staff and administrators.

The impact analysis used a rigorous research design to measure the programs’ effects on outcomes including employment, welfare use, and family functioning. Random assignment of study participants was completed in 2006. The outcomes for both groups were followed for at least three years, using public administrative records and surveys of study members. In addition, follow-up surveys were conducted at 15 and 36 months after random assignment in most sites.

42-Month Impacts from the Kansas and Missouri Sites of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project

Two Early Head Start programs were enhanced with formalized services to proactively address parents’ employment, educational, and self-sufficiency needs. A random assignment evaluation finds limited impacts for the full sample but some positive effects on employment and earnings for families who had an infant or who were expecting a child at the outset of the study.

This paper examines issues related to depression severity in this study of a one-year telephone care management intervention for depressed parents who were Medicaid recipients. The original study found effects on getting treatment during the intervention but no impacts on depression severity.

Redcross is Deputy Director of MDRC’s Health and Barriers to Employment policy area. Her expertise is in random assignment evaluations of programs that serve individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

Bloom directs MDRC’s work on groups seeking to gain a foothold in the labor market, including former prisoners, disconnected young adults, low-income noncustodial parents (usually fathers), welfare recipients, individuals with disabilities, and others.

Deputy Director, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development Policy Area

Hsueh is currently one of the lead investigators of the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) project, an evaluation of a marriage education program targeting low-income, racially and ethnically diverse married couples.

Senior Fellow, Family Well-Being and Children’s Development Policy Area

Morris, a professor of applied psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, is a consultant for MDRC’s Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area (for which she served as co-director in 2008 and 2009).

COMPLETELISTOFPUBLICATIONS

Very early results from a random assignment study suggest that Working toward Wellness increased the use of mental health services and had mixed effects on depression severity. Impacts are concentrated among Hispanic participants.

A random assignment study shows that participants in CEO’s transitional jobs program were less likely to be convicted of a crime, to be admitted to prison for a new conviction, or to be incarcerated for any reason in prison or jail over the first two years. The program also had a large but short-lived impact on employment.

After one year, CEO’s transitional jobs program generated a large but short-lived increase in employment for ex-prisoners. A subgroup of recently released prisoners showed positive effects on recidivism: They were less likely to have their parole revoked, to be convicted of a felony, and to be reincarcerated than the control group.

The Center for Employment Opportunities Comprehensive Prisoner Reentry Program

04/2006

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) serves nearly 2,000 reentering prisoners a year with a structured program of pre-employment training, immediate short-term transitional work, and job placement services. This report, written jointly by CEO and MDRC, describes how the CEO program operates. Results from a random assignment evaluation by MDRC are expected next year.